Jail for spur of the moment theft at Forbidden City thief
By Li Qian |
March 20, 2012, Tuesday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
A CHINESE farmer who stole nine exhibits from the Palace Museum in Beijing's Forbidden City was yesterday jailed for 13 years.
Shi Baikui, 28, a native of eastern Shandong Province, was also fined 13,000 yuan (US$2,056) at the Beijing No. 2 Intermediate People's Court.
The court said the robbery at the museum was "by destructive means" but gave Shi a lenient sentence because he had confessed at an earlier hearing.
Shi seemed relieved when he heard the verdict as he had expected a more harsh punishment.
"He considered he would be sentenced to death at first," his lawyer Huang Changyong, told the Legal Evening News yesterday.
But Huang said the penalty was still too harsh and he was trying to persuade Shi to lodge an appeal seeking a lighter sentence.
"It was just a normal theft except for the location," Huang said, arguing that the court should have sentenced Shi to less than three years.
"However, it still depends on him whether to make an appeal," the lawyer said.
Shi insisted he had acted on "the spur of the moment" and that the theft hadn't been planned.
"The idea of theft occurred to me while I was seeking shelter there from the rain," Shi said. This, the newspaper report said, was one of the reasons why the court had been more lenient than expected.
Shi sneaked into the Palace Museum on the night of May 8 last year and stole nine jewelry boxes, including gold purses and jewel-encrusted mirrored compacts on loan from the Hong Kong Liang Yi Museum.
He lost five of the objects inside the museum while he made his escape and threw the rest in a dumpster after a jewelry shop owner told him they were fakes and refused to buy them, prosecutors said. The insured value of the stolen objects was around 410,000 yuan.
Police caught Shi on May 11 in an Internet cafe in Beijing's Fengtai district.
Six of the jewelry boxes have been recovered, but three, valued at around 150,000 yuan, are still missing.
Court investigators found Shi had stolen a laptop computer, a cell phone and a wallet containing 500 yuan on separate occasions in 2010 and 2011.
The incident sparked public concern over security loopholes in the Forbidden azCity and proved to be just the start of a string of scandals involving the museum.
Just one week after the theft, it used the wrong word in a thank you banner presented to police. It thanked them for "shaking" the homeland's prosperity rather than "safeguarding" it.
The museum was also accused of running an exclusive club for rich people, a claim it denied.
A series of mishaps due to human error were also revealed, including damage to four rare antiquities and the loss of some 100 old books. It was accused of trying to cover up those incidents.
The museum also admitted renting space to exhibitors for around hundreds of thousands of yuan a year.
And the museum was said to have paid 100,000 yuan to a blackmailer to cover up a scandal in which security guards and tourist guards allegedly embezzled ticket income.
The then curator of the museum, Zheng Xinmiao, apologized for management shortcomings, but concerns over the safety of national treasures remained.
Shan Jixiang, who replaced Zheng, said management had long been aware that the existing alarm system was outdated and a four-year upgrade began in November 2009. By last December, about 60 percent of the work had been completed.
In an interview with Xinhua news agency, Shan said the museum must employ "the world's most advanced security equipment and technology."
Once the upgrading is complete, security staff will use screens to instantly monitor sites where an alarm is triggered, he said.
Shi Baikui, 28, a native of eastern Shandong Province, was also fined 13,000 yuan (US$2,056) at the Beijing No. 2 Intermediate People's Court.
The court said the robbery at the museum was "by destructive means" but gave Shi a lenient sentence because he had confessed at an earlier hearing.
Shi seemed relieved when he heard the verdict as he had expected a more harsh punishment.
"He considered he would be sentenced to death at first," his lawyer Huang Changyong, told the Legal Evening News yesterday.
But Huang said the penalty was still too harsh and he was trying to persuade Shi to lodge an appeal seeking a lighter sentence.
"It was just a normal theft except for the location," Huang said, arguing that the court should have sentenced Shi to less than three years.
"However, it still depends on him whether to make an appeal," the lawyer said.
Shi insisted he had acted on "the spur of the moment" and that the theft hadn't been planned.
"The idea of theft occurred to me while I was seeking shelter there from the rain," Shi said. This, the newspaper report said, was one of the reasons why the court had been more lenient than expected.
Shi sneaked into the Palace Museum on the night of May 8 last year and stole nine jewelry boxes, including gold purses and jewel-encrusted mirrored compacts on loan from the Hong Kong Liang Yi Museum.
He lost five of the objects inside the museum while he made his escape and threw the rest in a dumpster after a jewelry shop owner told him they were fakes and refused to buy them, prosecutors said. The insured value of the stolen objects was around 410,000 yuan.
Police caught Shi on May 11 in an Internet cafe in Beijing's Fengtai district.
Six of the jewelry boxes have been recovered, but three, valued at around 150,000 yuan, are still missing.
Court investigators found Shi had stolen a laptop computer, a cell phone and a wallet containing 500 yuan on separate occasions in 2010 and 2011.
The incident sparked public concern over security loopholes in the Forbidden azCity and proved to be just the start of a string of scandals involving the museum.
Just one week after the theft, it used the wrong word in a thank you banner presented to police. It thanked them for "shaking" the homeland's prosperity rather than "safeguarding" it.
The museum was also accused of running an exclusive club for rich people, a claim it denied.
A series of mishaps due to human error were also revealed, including damage to four rare antiquities and the loss of some 100 old books. It was accused of trying to cover up those incidents.
The museum also admitted renting space to exhibitors for around hundreds of thousands of yuan a year.
And the museum was said to have paid 100,000 yuan to a blackmailer to cover up a scandal in which security guards and tourist guards allegedly embezzled ticket income.
The then curator of the museum, Zheng Xinmiao, apologized for management shortcomings, but concerns over the safety of national treasures remained.
Shan Jixiang, who replaced Zheng, said management had long been aware that the existing alarm system was outdated and a four-year upgrade began in November 2009. By last December, about 60 percent of the work had been completed.
In an interview with Xinhua news agency, Shan said the museum must employ "the world's most advanced security equipment and technology."
Once the upgrading is complete, security staff will use screens to instantly monitor sites where an alarm is triggered, he said.
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